To accompany the exhibition Minuto Mantenimento, which will open on 21 March 2025 at Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo, artist Marzia Migliora has created the series Teatro del non detto, consisting of 49 unique puppets. These will help finance the project Spazio Acrobazie: A Workshop for Productivity and Renewal through Artistic Mediation, whose innovative educational format has been tailored to people incarcerated in Palermo’s correctional facilities. The project is curated by Elisa Fulco and Antonio Leone and promoted by the Acrobazie Association and ruber.contemporanea with the support of Fondazione Sicilia and Fondazione con il Sud. The puppets are the outcome of a series of workshops led by Marzia Migliora in 2024, involving individuals under the supervision of Palermo’s community corrections department (UIEPE). The series’ title, meaning Theatre of the Unsaid, refers to art’s ability to become a vehicle of consultation, giving voice to the unspoken, enabling people to step into others’ shoes and to imagine new narratives by depicting imagined and imaginary scenarios. Inspired by the collection of the Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum and the Triumph of Death fresco at Palazzo Abatellis, the puppets bear headpieces crafted by the artist. Their features have been sculpted by master puppeteer Pietro Sasso; their overalls, deliberately neutral to facilitate performance and movement, have been tailored by the Sartoria Sociale of Palermo. Proceeds from their sale will allow Spazio Acrobazie to produce new works and bring art both into and out of prison.
